U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/491,458, filed May 31, 2011, is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
When traveling over a field, crop harvesters typically separate a path of crop material forward of the header to be harvested from crop material to be harvested in a subsequent pass. Forwardly tapered sidewalls of the harvester's frame may be used to separate the crop material, or crop dividers may be mounted to the most forward end of the sidewalls to further facilitate the separation. A rotary reel, including a plurality of tine bars having axially spaced tines therealong, guides the crop material to be harvested towards a cutter bar extending between the sidewalls, and the cut crop is transported on a draper or auger transport arrangement into the harvester for further processing. The tine bars are mounted for pivotal movement about a respective tine bar axis generally parallel to a reel rotational axis. A cam, mounted between the sidewall and an end of the rotary reel, in cooperation with linkages to each tine bar, controls the pivotal movement of the tine bars and thus the angular orientation of the tines thereon. As the rotary reel rotates, the tines on each tine bar follow a predetermined path defined by the cam for lifting, separating, and guiding crop material towards the cutter bar and beyond.
It should be noted that the cutter bar extends between the sidewalls of the header frame below both the rotary reel and the cam and linkage arrangement associated with the end of the rotary reel. In the case of a split rotary reel, a cam and linkage arrangement is associated with an end of each portion of the split rotary reel. As a result, crop material entering the header at a cam region forward of the cutter bar below the cam and linkage arrangement (or between the sidewall and the end of the rotary reel) is not guided by tines towards the cutter bar. It has been observed that this crop material may enter the cam and linkage arrangement and interfere with the operation thereof. In particular, this crop material may affect the movement of rollers along the cam or tangle and cause a blockage near the cam. In addition, this crop material may cause congestion at the cutter bar and/or create blockages thereat.
In order to address this situation, a spring tine has been attached to the cam side of the linkage arrangement. This spring tine is mounted so that it generally follows the path of the tines along the tine bar. While the spring tine is helpful, an area below the cam is still exposed to entering crop material.
Accordingly, what is sought is a cam shield for a rotary reel of a crop harvesting header, which deflects incoming crop material from a cam region, and which provides one or more of the capabilities and overcomes at least one of the problems, shortcomings or disadvantages as set forth above.